This is written from not-quite-but-nearly a position of total ignorance. All I know about the history of Green Lantern is what I've happened to glean from the internets, and that was mainly just enough for me to decide to read some. (I think it's mainly the concept of there being so many Green Lanterns, like a whole Corps-full, that sold it for me.)
So now I know why Hal Jordan (the GL I read about on occasion as a kid) is no longer the Green Lantern as in the only one. And I guess I know the origin of the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern? This does not explain the John Stewart Green Lantern (although I've only seen him in the animated series I gather he also exists in the main universe) or the Guy Gardner Green Lantern, although I guess that will come in time as I read more. These books are apparently from 1994 so I'm sure that a whole lot has changed since then but it's a sort of a start.
This seems to work as an introduction to the current state of things, although I don't really know enough about it to be sure of that. :)
Random thoughts:
The costume the new GL changes to? Awful, definitely a 90s costume. The mask is okay, actually, but the boots and fingerless gloves, eep!
Hal Jordan's new look? Even worse. Epaulets, weren't those big in the 80s?
The art is decent overall.
The quality of paper used in the book is disappointing. (Yeah, a quibble, but I enjoy the tactile aspect of reading so I notice these things.)
It's a very bad idea to be a friend of a Green Lantern. Or to live in his home town. Best just to avoid them.
4 comments:
:-) Guy Gardner and John Stewart lanterns are older. Actually. Basically what happens is some time in the sixties, there's a story where Hal gets a vision from his ring in which it's revealed he was one of two equally worthy options. The vision explores what would happen if the other guy, a Baltimore school teacher, had ended up the Green Lantern.
Hal decides then that the guy (Guy Gardner) is going to be his alternate, to take the role if something happens to him.
Early seventies, we see the return of Guy, when he's in a bus accident. His extensive injuries mean Hal has to go elsewhere to find his backup, and the Guardians recommend John Stewart.
Complicated things happen, but it results in both Guy and John ending up full Lanterns. In side stories to Emerald Twilight (Mosaic for John and Guy Gardner: Warrior for Guy) the two are taken out of the running.
John'll officially become a Green Lantern again during Kyle's run, while Guy won't until Rebirth.
:-) Sorry. I like talking Lanterns. :-)
Thanks! I gather that the Green Lanterns are assigned to different parts of the universe--does having more than one from the same planet mean that one or more will have the long commute? :)
:-) Well, it didn't for the original Corps. John and Hal technically weren't Lanterns at the same time. And Guy had been chosen by a subgroup for a special reason. Eventually it did result in an unpleasant clash between Hal and Guy, fighting for the right to be Earth's sector's Green Lantern.
With the new Corps, there are two Lanterns per sector, so both Hal and John are Earth's Green Lanterns, while Guy and Kyle have special ranks that make them outside the whole system. :-)
It's kind of complicated. :-)
Complicated is right! I suppose it always was, only I understood the old complicated a little better (bottle city of Kandor, Earth 1 and Earth 2, and so forth). :)
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